The greatest tragedy in human history

[Ivan Seeking]

This idea came up in another thread and I thought it might make for an interesting discussion. So, what are your thoughts? I have always believed that the loss of the library at Alexandria may be one of the greatest tragedies of all time. Of course we can't know what we are missing, but there is reason to believe that this was a monumental loss to humanity.

Of course loss of life is hard to compare to loss of information, but who knows how much we had to re-discover; say for example medical information that could have saved the lives of millions through the ages.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I always have a hard time with these sorts of questions. I think it really depends on the way in which you look at the event's. I agree that the library was a great tragedy but not every one values books and information so highly.

 

[Moonbear]

Of course loss of life is hard to compare to loss of information, but who knows how much we had to re-discover; say for example medical information that could have saved the lives of millions through the ages.

Well, it depends on whether you mean the short-term or long-term. Lives cut short seems tragic, but in the larger time scale, people have a pretty short shelf-life; everyone who died in a tragedy was destined to die eventually anyway. Information, on the other hand, can last a long time and possibly benefit many generations. So, I'd have to agree that on the assumption we really did lose valuable information, loss of the information is a greater tragedy to humanity on the larger time scale.

 

[Danger]

trying very hard not to mention your last couple of elections...

 

[Pengwuino]

trying very hard not to mention your last couple of elections...

lol got to love em. *pets the Canadaian*, good boy

 

[Danger]

lol got to love em. *pets the Canadaian*, good boy

I'd prefer that Evo do that, if you don't mind. :tongue:

 

[zoobyshoe]

Of course we can't know what we are missing..."

There's the rub. Had the library not been destroyed physics may have advanced to the nuclear age in 1345 and some castle-dwelling tyrant may have precipitously blown all his competitors to ashes. We can't know if we missed something even worse than what did happen.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

There's the rub. Had the library not been destroyed physics may have advanced to the nuclear age in 1345 and some castle-dwelling tyrant may have precipitously blown all his competitors to ashes. We can't know if we missed something even worse than what did happen.

good point. Vlad the Impaler, or Genghis Khan with a nuke; now there's a thought.

 

[Kakarot]

sounds like a good scifi movie. bill and ted go back in time and save the library and then ghengis khan nukes the world :rofl:

 

[kaos]

good point. Vlad the Impaler, or Genghis Khan with a nuke; now there's a thought.

Or the catholic church. Convert or die!

 

[kaos]

And maybe the muslims as well...

 

[matthyaouw]

How about fall of the Roman Empire? It took hundereds of years to regain some of the skills lost with the Romans.

 

[arildno]

The emergence of Judaism/Christianity&Islam.

 

[dextercioby]

I fully agree with Arildno.

Daniel.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Judaism arose amid a culture of human sacrifice and temple prostution. I doubt the world would be better off without the Jewish reform.

 

[Astronuc]

The emergence of Judaism/Christianity&Islam.

Or one could say, the emergence of religion, or is that the emergence of organized or institutionalized irrational thought - that being the concept of 'faith' or 'belief' in the absence of evidence or fact.

I would have to say the greatest tragedy is the Holocaust and World War II, and following closely the purges and pogroms of Stalin, the Cultural Revolution, and period of Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia (Kamupchea). The level of inhumanity and evil is profoundly sad. Then one could add the Crusades and the Inquisition.

 

[arildno]

There are some massacres of natives in California&Texas during the 19th century which ought to be mentioned..

 

[Monique]

I would have to say the greatest tragedy is the Holocaust and World War II

I was going to say the same.

 

[Astronuc]

There are some massacres of natives in California&Texas during the 19th century which ought to be mentioned..

The whole European invasion and conquest of the America's, and the genocide and ethnic cleasening of the native peoples.

And I could add the same for the native peoples in Australia.

There are aboriginal and indian tribes that no longer exist, not even one person.

 

[marlon]

I would have to say the greatest tragidy is the upcoming North Korean Global Nuclear Attack

Do you all sleep well at night ? MuHAHAHAHA

regards
marlon

 

[arildno]

A nuclear fart??
What's so tragic about that?

 

[SpaceTiger]

The greatest tragedy in human history

Star Wars: Episode I

 

[arildno]

The whole European invasion and conquest of the America's, and the genocide and ethnic cleasening of the native peoples.

And I could add the same for the native peoples in Australia.

There are aboriginal and indian tribes that no longer exist, not even one person.

The only reason why I limited myself to the California&Texas case, is that these massacres cannot be denied or explained away as something else than they were,
since these horrors, in particular in California, was amply covered by shocked Bostonians and other east-coasters whose ancestors had finished their work 150 years before.

I could have generalized it a bit like you did, though..

 

[marlon]

Star Wars: Episode I

yeah, i'd add episode two also...pitty Natalie Portman is so well hidden under her make up

marlon

 

[arildno]

Star Wars: Episode I

:rofl:,
About as tragic as the murderous Aztec religion, I'd say..

 

[marlon]

A nuclear fart??
What's so tragic about that?

it's bad for your health

marlon

 

[arildno]

it's bad for your health

marlon

I already smoke.

 

[marlon]

I already smoke.

:rofl:

so do I...at least two people that will survive...But who will be using our FAQ ?

marlon

 

[arildno]

:rofl:

so do I...at least two people that will survive...But who will be using our FAQ ?

marlon

All our work in vain..

Perhaps I should stop smoking in time after all..

 

[Smurf]

I would have to say the greatest tragidy is the upcoming North Korean Global Nuclear Attack

Do you all sleep well at night ? MuHAHAHAHA

regards
marlon

People always say they're worried about the situation in North Korea, it never made any sense to me man, I'm worried about right ****ing here! The states man, those guys have so many ****ing nukes it's not funny. And they're taking more nukes from other people too so they have any more, and they're elections arn't even stable! they're almost at the point of civil war that's what's scary, not some pissy north korean arsenal of a scud missile and a couple ww2-era warheads.

 

[Astronuc]

The only reason why I limited myself to the California&Texas case, is that these massacres cannot be denied or explained away as something else than they were,
since these horrors, in particular in California, was amply covered by shocked Bostonians and other east-coasters whose ancestors had finished their work 150 years before.

An excellent reference on the subject - "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" by Dee Alexander Brown.

This book brought me to tears.

Marlon and arildno - quit smoking guys - I would hate to outlive you both.

 

[Joel]

I don't know about the greatest, but I'd say colonialism and and its aftermath especially in Africa deserves a mentioning (count the numerous civil-wars, epidemics, etc. in the last century). And of course the holocaust and the numerous deeds done with religious justification.

Oh, and to continue on Marlon's thought, the upcoming energy shortage, clean air shortage, overpopulation and biosphere collapse, to name a few more.

Finally, industry driven science funding.

 

[russ_watters]

People always say they're worried about the situation in North Korea, it never made any sense to me man, I'm worried about right ****ing here! The states man, those guys have so many ****ing nukes it's not funny. And they're taking more nukes from other people too so they have any more, and they're elections arn't even stable! they're almost at the point of civil war that's what's scary, not some pissy north korean arsenal of a scud missile and a couple ww2-era warheads.

Couple of things I want to clarify here: you're talking about the US, right? Near civil war? Where do you get that idea? American politics is no more contentous than any other western democracy: heck, Canada is talking about splitting, not the US. And getting more nukes from other people? Huh? We don't take other people's nukes. And you know we're cutting our arsenal by a significant fraction, right (can't remember if it's 1/2 or 1/3...)?

Lotta weird things in that post...

But greatest tragedy in human history? Easy: Marxism. Marx's work is at least partially responsible for the largest of the problems in the 20th century. It played only a small part in Hitler's rise (Hitler did use some of Marx's ideas), but played a large part in Stalin's work (he killed millions in an effort to promote Marxism), Vietnam, China, North Korea. Hundreds of millions of deaths have resulted from that ill-conceived idea this century (both directly and indirectly).

 

[ShawnD]

And you know we're cutting our arsenal by a significant fraction, right (can't remember if it's 1/2 or 1/3...)?

I don't really understand this. If the US gets rid of all nuclear arms, that's basically just giving up a huge amount of leverage. Giving up some of them doesn't make sense either because just a few, maybe 10, are still enough to take on the rest of the world. The logical thing would be to keep all existing arms.

I would agree that Marx was the worst thing to happen to humanity recently. We had quite a few wars in the world because of his brain-dead ideas.

Worst one overall in probably organized religion. Christianity vs Islam vs everybody else caused a lot of wars. Then of course there's the whole saddistic clergy syndrome; example: burning "witches" because their food tastes better than yours or their clothes are cleaner.

 

[SpaceTiger]

Giving up some of them doesn't make sense either because just a few, maybe 10, are still enough to take on the rest of the world.

I thought that was the idea...they're not needed for leverage, so just get rid of them.